Pests and Panic - A day of tests....

Good weather and things to do in the yard means neglected housework - and I neglect housework at the best of times! But first things first, I had some pest eradication to do.
Our yard has been invaded by harlequin bugs. They are sap suckers so while it doesn't look initially like they are damaging a plant, it's sucking it dry on the inside. My dahlia was covered with them and all of a sudden, it looked absolutely terrible.

The dreaded Harlequin bug on my native Hibiscus

Thanks to Gardening Australia, I read that the best way to control this pest is a strong solution of cheap dishwashing liquid and water. Spray it on and it suffocates them.
Hey presto! Spray them and in a couple of minutes, they're feet up on the soil. Yay! Now I know what ate my tomatoes and I look forward to a better summer season next year without these little critters. I just need to spray regularly to keep them at bay.

 

A quiet day until....my beautiful puppy Roxy got her head caught in a fence! She dived to chase a weed on the other side of the fence and couldn't get her head back through! The yelps she made were horrific! Luckily it didn't restrict her throat or breathing so I just had to keep her calm until help arrived. Many thanks to my neighbour who was able to come to our rescue! We couldn't push her head back through as her ears where stopping her progress so my neighbour got the bolt clippers and cut the wire around - and voila! Roxy was free! Scary stuff and I really hope she's learnt her lesson! Consequently the housework will have to wait until tomorrow!

On another note, I made vegetable stock concentrate tonight. It saves soooo much money than buying liquid stock and I get to use the almost dead veggies from the fridge and I can use whatever veggies are to hand. Yes, I am lucky that I have a Thermomix, but I see no reason why anyone with a blender couldn't do it too. All you need is vegetables, herbs and salt. For non-thermo people, here is a link to a recipe you could use - remember if you don't have the veggies or the right amount, improvise with what you have - Vegetable stock concentrate


My stock was quite green this time due to the excess of zucchinis I've been blessed with!

Hopefully tomorrow doesn't contain the panic levels of today!